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GSE alumnus named Assistant Principal of the Year

Michael Ralls, MA ’01, IAL ’07, CAL ’14, is the 2014 Oregon Association of Secondary School Administrators (OASSA) Assistant Principal of the Year. He is an assistant principal at Milwaukie High School. He was selected by the OASSA and the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators (COSA).

He was cited for the OASSA award for his recent efforts to increase student achievement at Milwaukie High School. As a former language arts teacher and school counselor, he helped teachers focus on improving reading and writing scores. He also helped to increase attendance at the school, where 70 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Previous to his work at Milwaukie High School, he was a counselor at Clackamas High School and a counselor and administrator at New Urban High School in North Clackamas School District. In 2008, he received the Billi Odegaard Public Health Genius Award from the Community Health Partnership for his work coordinating, partnering, and grantwriting for student health services at New Urban High School. These efforts resulted in a medical van that visits that campus each week.

More recently, he worked with North Clackamas students, parents, and partners to implement a student health center on the Milwaukie High School campus, where he envisioned a full bricks and mortar center that would provide basic medical and dental services. In 2011, with a federal grant totaling $396,000 from the Health Resources and Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and some funding from Clackamas County, the Milwaukie Rotary Club, and the Ann & Bill Swindells Charitable Trust; the North Clackamas School District was able to revamp a classroom at Milwaukie High School and create a full-time health center. The Milwaukie High School Health and Wellness Center is open five days a week and available to Milwaukie High and Rowe Middle School students. Services include physical exams, mental health services, prescriptions, immunizations, dental care, fitness and nutrition counseling, and assistance in applying for health insurance. Medical services will be provided by Outside In for the next ten years.

The OASSA award nominates Mr. Ralls for the national honor and a trip to Washington DC for the awards dinner later this year. He will also be honored next June at the COSA Annual Conference in Seaside, Oregon. He joins a distinguished group of exceptional GSE alumni who have been making significant impact on K-12 students in Oregon. Congratulations, Michael!